A Cheat Sheet For The Obamacare Hearings

A Cheat Sheet For The Obamacare Hearings

Every few days, it seems, there’s another hearing into one problem or another with rolling out the Affordable Care Act. It’s hard to keep track.

Since late October, by my count, there have been 10 House and Senate hearings. Eight were by House committees led by Republicans who oppose the law; two were before Senate panels run by Democrats.

The most memorable of the hearings was Oct. 30 when Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius first testified about the HealthCare.gov debacle. Also buzzworthy was the Nov. 13 hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The panel subpoenaed Todd Park, the U.S. chief technology officer, and it was unclear whether he would appear (he did.)

Highlight: “Federal officials did not fully test the online health insurance marketplace until two weeks before it opened to the public on Oct. 1, contractors told Congress on Thursday,” the New York Times reported. “While individual components of the system were tested earlier, they said, the government did not conduct 2018end-to-end-testing’ of the system until late September.”

Hearing highlight: “The federal official who oversees new health-insurance exchanges apologized publicly Tuesday for the troubled launch of a Web site that is supposed to allow millions of uninsured Americans to buy coverage, but she said the problems are “fixable” and pledged that the site would soon work as promised,” the Washington Post reported. “Testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee, Marilyn Tavenner, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), said: 2018To the millions of Americans who’ve attempted to use HealthCare.gov to shop and enroll in health-care coverage, I want to apologize to you that the Web site has not worked as well as it should. We know how desperately you need affordable coverage.'”

Hearing highlight: “Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius apologized to Americans Wednesday for the dysfunctional Web site that has hampered the rollout of the new national health care law,” USA Today reported. “2018You deserve better,’ Sebelius said in testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. 2018I apologize. I’m accountable to you for fixing these problems.'”

Hearing highlight: “Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Marilyn Tavenner said Tuesday that fixes have been made to the federal Web site to improve users’ experiences. She also answered questions about an exchange security breach that she said is fixed. In the meantime, the Obama administration faces growing skepticism from those in its own party on the rollout,” Kaiser Health News reported.

Hearing highlight: “Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sought to reassure lawmakers in a Senate Finance Committee hearing Wednesday that fixes 2014 hundreds of them 2014 are being made to HealthCare.gov, but rejected calls to delay the law or shut the website down. She also said she expected enrollment from October to be “quite low,” Kaiser Health News reported.

Hearing highlight: “A top White House technology official told a House committee Wednesday that HealthCare.gov can currently handle up to 25,000 Web site users at the same time. White House chief technology officer Todd Park said technology teams were working aggressively to fix the website and get it working “for the vast majority” of Americans by the Nov. 30 deadline set by the administration,” The Wall Street Journal reported. “The federal agency running HealthCare.gov, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, originally envisioned a site with capacity to handle up to 60,000 concurrent users, Mr. Park said. Heavy usage of the site is expected near the Dec. 15 deadline for people to sign up for coverage effective Jan. 1.”

Watch (in three parts):

Date: November 14 Committee: House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health

Hearing highlight: “Henry Chao, the Obama administration official who oversaw the technical development of the federal health insurance marketplace, said Tuesday that his team has yet to complete 30 to 40 percent of the overall project,” the Washington Post reported. “Speaking before a subcommittee of the House Energy and Oversight Committee, Chao said the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is still working on a number